We ended the night at a pizza place that was open every hour of the day. Nothing better than to end a night out with something super greasy and filled with lots and lots of salt.

I absentmindedly listened to my friends’ conversation, too tired to participate much. I was going home with Abel after this, and his bed was screaming my name. So sleepy.

I flicked through the local newspaper someone had left on the table and stopped at one article headline, having to close one eye to properly read it.

Forest murder still not solved, screamed at me in big bold letters.

“What’s this?” I asked and tapped my finger on the page.

“Oh yeah, this girl was murdered in the forest like maybe… two months ago?” Cal said and shrugged a shoulder. “She graduated some years ago and was working in the flower shop. She was nice.”

Fred scrunched up her face. “Please don’t talk about the murder again.”

“This is more up my alley,” Creek chimed in and pulled the newspaper towards them, crinkling it up a little in the process. “Haven’t screamed due to a murder before, but it happened there. They say it’s a murder but like, it also looked like an animal attack. And of course, there’s no ghost to ask. Or if there is, she’s hiding.” He shrugged, spreading his arms out to the sides very dramatically and almost hit me in the face.

I frowned at the page. It had a picture of the girl too. She looked a little older than us maybe, but very pretty. Like a typical small-town girl. Soft brown curls down to her shoulders and a big smile.

“I wonder what happened there,” I muttered under my breath.

“Like I said: murder,” Creek slurred at me and then failing at leaning his head against their hand.

“Alrighty, I think that does it. Time for everyone to go home,” Abel said with a bubbling chuckle building underneath his words. He helped Creek out of the booth and handed them over to Cal. Creek was sleeping at their house tonight.

“What do you make of this murder?” I asked after we had said goodbye and left the group to go to Abel’s place.

“Nothing really. Humans die and kill each other all the time. It’s not the first murder in this town and it’s not gonna be the last I reckon. Considering it’s a uni town, there’s a lot less crime than expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, young humans, lots of drugs, lots of sex and lots of booze… It’s not a good combination. Right when I moved here there was this serial stalker guy who’d look through the dorm windows to look at women changing or sleeping. Gross asshole.” He spat on the ground. “Luckily, he was caught but not until he had actually broken into someone’s dorm and a girl woke up with him standing over her. Her boyfriend was there though and broke the guy’s face.”

I cringed a little. “Ew.”

“Yeah. And every once in a while, there’s actual murder. Usually, it’s due to some jealousy thing or a domestic issue. I reckon that’s what happens when you gather lots of young people from all over the country and have kind of a revolving door of people moving to and away from here frequently.”

“I thought this was a really cute and wholesome town.”

“It’s not like they wanna loudly advertise with the crime rates here. Otherwise, no one would move here. Like everywhere else there’s a huge drug issue and yeah, with that comes violence and shit.” Abel shrugged a shoulder and glanced down at me. He had pushed his aviators up in his forehead, letting his cute eyes show.

I came from a much larger town than this and had maybe hoped there’d be more of a… Wholesome vibe here. And honestly there was a more friendly small-town “we all know each other here” kind of vibe, but maybe I had also been a little blind to everything else. I hadn’t really explored the town as much as I could’ve and of course there was bound to be rougher neighbourhoods than the ones me and my friends lived in. I was annoyed I had let myself be so wilfully blind. Not that I could do anything to actually solve all the issues, but I hated being ignorant.

“We should explore the town more,” I said then as Abel got us through the front door to his building.

“Sure, we can take a nice drive around, if you want.”

We climbed the stairs to the first floor and stopped by the door to Abel’s flat.

“That’d be nice. I haven’t really done much exploring since moving here.”

“Well, you were awfully occupied with much more important things.” He let me in through the front door and closed it behind him, before gently pushing me up against the wall. “Like, uni. Very stressful to start a course.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve definitely been busy with that.”

“And homework. Don’t forget about that.” He began bending down, his mouth hovering just above mine. I had tipped my head up at some point without even noticing.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“And me. You’ve been busy with me,” he whispered and kissed me. “I demand lots of time.”

“You sure do.” I kissed him back, circling my arms around his neck. He grabbed my thighs and lifted me up, getting me to wrap my legs around him.

I would’ve been surprised he was that strong, as he walked effortlessly towards the bedroom with me wrapped around him like a monkey, but to be honest, I was too busy kissing him and running my hands through his hair, entirely ruining his hard work.

He gently got me down on the bed and joined me, still kissing me. I pulled on his shirt, and he slid it off immediately, throwing it away.

“I’m too drunk,” he murmured against my lips.

“Me too.”

“But you still couldn’t wait until I got my shirt off,” he laughed and pulled back.

I snorted and shrugged. “You know, I never really can wait to get it off you.”

His entire face broke into a smile. His eyes always arched a little, his eyebrows rose on his forehead, making it wrinkle a little, and a deep dimple dug into his cheek. I lived for those full-face smiles.

He dumped down on the bed, still smiling and grabbed me, getting me to cuddle up to him. I had zero issues with that as that meant I could basically shove my whole face down on his chest.

“You’re so cute,” he murmured tiredly.

“No no, I’m really cool and like… Super masculine and hardcore. Like an action character.”

Abel laughed, making my face vibrate against his skin.

“Definitely those things too.” He tried hard to suppress a yawn.

I pulled the covers up to my chin, smoothing them out over him too so he wouldn’t get cold… Which made me wonder if he could even feel cold? He probably could, but like… He was always so warm. And he never seemed bothered on the colder days. I made a mental note to ask him some time if he even needed a jacket during the autumn or if he could just always rock those black t-shirts with funny or sarcastic prints on them. That would have to be a question for another day. Right now, I was too tired to even think about anything but cuddling up as closely as I could to him, slinging my leg over his and shift a little more on top of him.